Last summer, Bridges to Prosperity, a non-profit
organization that partners with university student chapters to build footbridges
in rural villages around the world, accepted Lehigh's bid to form a new chapter.
Since then, the organization has been planning to help build a bridge in
Vallecito, Panama, this summer.

Kenneth Frantz created Bridges to Prosperity in 2001 after
he saw a photo in National Geographic
of villagers using a rope to traverse across the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia
because the original bridge had broken.

After seeing this photo, he was inspired to help rural
villages fund and build footbridges across impassable rivers to "(provide) isolated communities
with access to essential health care, education and economic opportunities."

The
organization has partnered with various local governments, organizations and
university chapters to build demonstration bridges to spread footbridge
technology around the world.

As
the global need for footbridges is very high, the organization emphasizes that educating
locals is the best way to spread the technology. Since its founding,
Bridges to Prosperity has built over 100 bridges and has expanded to 14
countries.

Lehigh's chapter was founded in fall 2013 after being
accepted by its national organization in the summer. The organization is
already on its way to completing its first project.

"Some students
may see the work we are doing and assume that it is just for civil engineers,
but we really want to involve people from all majors," said Julia Klitzke, '14, the chapter's
director of public relations and marketing.

The
organization emphasizes that there is a need for all majors, as its projects
are all-inclusive and include anything from networking with locals to learning
the mechanics of a footbridge. Although the club is mostly student-run,
it has the support and aid of its faculty advisers and national advisers.

Most of the small towns surrounding Vallecito are
impoverished, and during the region's rainy seasons, its rivers become overrun.
Their access to Vallecito and other communities become completely cut off.

Each year from May to December, the east and west banks of the
Rio Indio are separated from schools, markets and healthcare as the river becomes
impassable. Lehigh's Bridges to Prosperity chapter, with the assistance of the
Peace Corps, is planning to build a 100-foot pedestrian footbridge across the river.
This will allow 2,300 locals from seven different communities to safely cross
the river.

In addition to helping build the footbridge, the students
want to create a lasting relationship with the town's residents. This is one of
Bridges to Prosperity's first projects in Panama and the organization wants to pursue
more projects there.

The chapter has been fundraising since last semester to raise
$10,000 of the project's costs. It has already reached $7,000.

From Jan. 6 to 10, Russ Vignali, '14, and Juan Viteri-Yaquian, '14 — the
group's president and project manager, respectively — traveled to Panama to collect
data from the project site.

The
data they collected, which included testing the topography and the soil near
the river, has allowed students to begin working on the design of the bridge this
semester.

Jose
Sierra, '16, a native of Panama, gave Vignali and Viteri-Yaquian advice on his visit. Sierra said that
though Panama is one of the most industrialized countries in Latin America, the
gap between rich and poor is vast.

"I
am very impressed by the initiative of B2P to build a footbridge in Vallecito
because it will make a big difference in their communities and help bridge the
social and economic gap of these small communities," he said.

Although the group's founding executive board consists of
mostly seniors, it is proud and excited to have helped start the chapter at
Lehigh and is excited for its younger members to continue what it has started.

"What I love about this club is that it allows students to
use the material that they learned in class and apply it to a real-life
project," Vignali said. "The projects are both educational and humanitarian...and
I have had a fantastic time thus far and look forward to future of the club."

This summer, the group plans on traveling to El Valle to
assist the locals in completing the project.